The List 6068 TGB
Good Sunday Morning April 17 2022
Happy Easter Sunday
I hope that your weekend is going well.
Regards,
Skip
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History
April 17
1778
The sloop-of-war Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, captures British ship, Lord Chatham, in St. Georges Channel, during the American Revolution.
1808
Napoleon Bonaparte issues the Bayonne Decree, which authorizes the French seizure of all United States ships entering all ports of the Hanseatic League. Napoleon argues the decree will help the United States enforce the Embargo Act signed by President Thomas Jefferson in December 1807.
1915
Chief Gunners Mate Frank Crilley, a naval diver, rescues a fellow diver who had become entangled at a depth of 250 feet during salvage operations for USS F-4 submarine that had sunk March 25, 1915, with the loss of her entire crew. For his heroism on this occasion, he is awarded the Medal of Honor in 1929.
1918
USS Stewart (DD 13) is on escort duty in Quiberon Bay, France when nearby the American steamship Florence H suffers an internal explosion. Ships Cook Third Class Jesse W. Covington and Quartermaster Frank M. Upton dive overboard to save an exhausted survivor surrounded by exploding power boxes. For their actions, both sailors receive the Medal of Honor.
1942
USS Searaven (SS 196) begins rescue of stranded Australian sailors, airmen, and soldiers from Japanese-occupied Timor, N.E.I.
1944
Minesweeper USS Swift (AM 122) and patrol craft USS PC 619 sink the German submarine, U 986, in the North Atlantic.
This Day in World History
April 17
858 Benedict III ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
1492 Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spain to find a western route to the Indies.
1524 Present-day New York Harbor is discovered by Giovanni da Verrazzano.
1535 Antonio Mendoza is appointed first viceroy of New Spain.
1758 Frances Williams, the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere, publishes a collection of Latin poems.
1808 Bayonne Decree by Napoleon Bonaparte of France orders seizure of U.S. ships.
1824 Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54' 40'.
1861 Virginia becomes the eighth state to secede from the Union.
1864 General Ulysses Grant bans the trading of prisoners.
1865 Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
1875 The game "snooker" is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
1895 China and Japan sign peace treaty of Shimonoseki.
1929 Baseball player Babe Ruth and Claire Hodgson, a former member of the Ziegfeld Follies, get married.
1946 The last French troops leave Syria.
1947 Jackie Robinson bunts for his first major league hit.
1961 Some 1,400 Cuban exiles attack the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.
1964 Jerrie Mock becomes first woman to fly solo around the world.
1969 Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 Apollo 13--originally scheduled to land on the moon--lands back safely on Earth after an accident.
1975 Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
1983 In Warsaw, police rout 1,000 Solidarity supporters.
1970
Apollo 13 returns to Earth
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post
Skip… For The List for Sunday, 17 April 2022… Bear 🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 17 April 1967… "The Powell Doctrine"…
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses
Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
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A repeat
This a follow on to H-Gram 44 and picks up the next phase of the Battle of Okinawa. Another great piece of work by Admiral Cox and the folks at the Naval History and Heritage Command. Only 17 days have passed of the 82 days the battle will last since the start of the battle on the First of April. The amount of the loss of men, Ships and aircraft will shock the nation. skip
Contents
The Ordeal of USS Laffey (DD-724)
The Naval Battle of Okinawa, Part 2
50th Anniversary of the Apollo 13 Mission
75th Anniversary of World War II
This H-gram covers the Naval Battle of Okinawa from the second massed kamikaze attack (Kikusui No. 2) through Kikusui No. 3 and No. 4 to 2 May 1945, with special emphasis on the ordeal of USS Laffey (DD-724) on 16 April 1945. It is a follow-on to H-Gram 044. For more on the background on the invasion of Okinawa, please see H-Gram 044's attachment H-044-1
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Thanks to Carl
(This is my one political article this morning because of the overall subject importance!)
April 17, 2022
I'm a Proud Member of the Rebel Alliance
By Clarice Feldman
The war in Ukraine is a tragedy to watch. Whether or not like Sean Penn, who claims he's thinking of taking arms to fight Russia, or like most of the corporate media you are rooting for Ukraine and demonizing Russia, you have to admire Ukrainian pluck. You also have to be astonished at the poor performance of the Russian military, who apparently lost their flagship missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea either by missile strike (U.S. claim) or accidental fire (Russian claim). I grieve for the suffering of those displaced by the war and the loss of life. I remain opposed to establishing a no-strike zone over Ukraine or the placement of U.S. troops there.
But for the moment, like my cat following the red laser dot (I concede) my attention is on Elon Musk's effort to buy Twitter. Like Wretchard, I see this as a critical effort to break the monopoly of news reporting.
I'm old fashioned enough to believe there's usually more than one side to a story and more than one acceptable belief, and I have long resented the extensive labor it takes to see the other side. How long did it take, for example, to get the truth of the Trayvon Martin matter known if you had not seen the extensive, detailed analysis and almost daily reporting in the Conservative Treehouse and relied only on corporate accounts? When did you first learn, if you were not an internet aficionado, that the George W. Bush National Guard story published by Dan Rather was entirely made up? A long time, if you didn't go to Free Republic or Little Green Footballs. More recently, how long was it before, in the face of irrefutable fact, the RussiaGate story was revealed as a total hoax cooked up by Hillary Clinton, her lawyers and the FBI and media friends? If you were unaware of sites like the Illustrated Primer, when if ever did you learn the sordid details of the Hunter Biden laptop? Twitter banned messages about it, the mainstream media ignored it. Do you, like so many journalists, seriously contend that censorship is free speech?
The internet for a while -- when people communicated on individual websites -- provided a freer exchange of facts and viewpoints, but then outfits like Facebook and Twitter captured most of the traffic while Google manipulated the searches. Now DuckDuckGo does as well. And after the capture of so much of the internet communications, Big Tech used their almost monopolistic power to promote those political figures and viewpoints they approve of and deplatformed and shadowbanned all others, often removing the content of the posts to which they objected.
It's of no small interest that the loudest objections to the Musk move have been journalists and pundits themselves. Why not? They controlled internet communications almost as completely as other countries' dictators do. Instapundit captures Glenn Greenwald's take, which I fully endorse.
But, is there more to it than protecting their monopoly?
There's one hint in Saudi Prince Talal, who owns a substantial share of Twitter, voicing his opposition to the sale. Conservative Treehouse makes a very interesting point. How much of Twitter has been secretly subsidized by the U.S. government, and what is the cost to free speech of such secret censorship?
Read it all. He explains in detail why there is no business model for Twitter. I can only summarize it here:
In the big picture of tech platforms, Twitter, as an operating model, is a massive high-user commenting system.
Twitter is not a platform built around a website; Twitter is a platform for comments and discussion that operates in the sphere of social media. As a consequence, the technology and data processing required to operate the platform does not have an economy of scale.
There is no business model where Twitter is financially viable to operate…. UNLESS the tech architecture under the platform was subsidized.
In my opinion, there is only one technological system and entity that could possibly underwrite the cost of Twitter to operate. That entity is the United States Government [snip]
According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter has approximately 217 million registered daily users, and their goal is to expand to 315 million users by the end of 2023. [snip] [With each new user], the cost increases because the servers need to respond to all the simultaneous users. [snip]
The key to understanding the Twitter dynamic is to see the difference between, (a) running a website, where it doesn't really matter how many people come to look at the content (low server costs), and (b) running a user engagement system, where the costs to accommodate the data processing -- which increase exponentially with a higher number of simultaneous users -- are extremely expensive. Twitter's entire platform is based on the latter.
There is no economy of scale in any simultaneous user engagement system. Every added user costs exponentially more in data-processing demand, because every user needs a response, and every simultaneous user (follower) requires the same simultaneous response. [snip]
If you understand the cost increases in the data demand for simultaneous users, you can see the business model for Twitter is non-existent.
Bottom line, more users means it costs Twitter more money to operate. The business model is backwards from traditional business. More customers = higher costs, because each customer brings more simultaneous users…. which means exponentially more data performance is needed. [snip]
The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap. The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government -- combined with a bottomless bank account.
If he's right, and I think he may well be, what does this mean about Google, Facebook, even now Duck Duck Go? Are they all subsidized in some way by the government or even foreigners like Talal?
Are we all serfs kept under the thumb by platforms secretly subsidized by the Deep State and foreign interests? That the SEC has decided to investigate other Musk operations suggests to me that his offer to buy Twitter has set off serious alarms in the galactic empire. Musk seems to think so.
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Thanks to Shadow, Jess and Bruddah
Shadow,
All of this Russia-Ukraine BS falls right into the hands of the globalists. Biden is nothing more than Obama's lap puppet. Ukraine matters not to them! What's a few more hundred thousand dead and a country lost? Nation states are so 20th Century passé!
You are correct, Hannity is a repetitive blow hard. I can't stand to listen to him anymore. He was intriguing when he brought on Investigative lawyers that had unveiled all kinds of dirt on the Dems! But it never went anywhere! Unless Durham brings them down!
Tulsi is right! She'd be perfect for a One America candidate! Repubs can go the way of the Whigs. They are nothing more than a UniParty faction. We can't trust hardly any of these bastards. Except Trump, Desantis, Tulsi and a few others will fight them!
The time is ripe! This stuff is beginning to piss me off!
Thanks for keeping me in your loop!
SF,
Bruddah
Sent from my iPhone
Shadow,
1) It's amazing to me the infamous phone call among Biden, Zelenskyy and Blinken has not been more public even knowing how the MSM is in cahoots with the DNC.
2) I agree about Gabbard—she would be a great VP candidate for whomever gets the Pub nod.
3) Once the Russian's began the border build up , why wasn't there a "all out" effort at diplomacy if you are correct about the inevitable. It seems a pull back on NATO could have been the ace card in those discussions?
4) I believe there is more to Putin's aspirations than NATO and strategic nuclear weapons. He badly needs warm weather ports and land access to them. He also lusts for the minerals and farm land that would provide him even more sway with Europe.
5) No doubt, we have f-----d this up badly, but I asked a good friend who agrees mostly with you: "HERE WE ARE, NOW WHAT"? Do we just watch the Ukrainian people and county obliterated or fully help Ukraine deter Putin from further aggression in that part of the world?
6) It seems to me we need leadership that can pick up the phone, tell Putin it's time to talk, there's been too much death and destruction already, so pause the war, let's meet and see if there is a win-win before this becomes WW-III. IMO, Mike Pompeo could have pulled that off—he is my first choice for Pres in 2024.
7) I rarely watch Hannity any longer because of his hyperbole—he talks over his guests—I get that at home—LOL—so I choose not to watch it on TV--I prefer others.
With high regards and respect to you and your group of warriors,
Jess
Subject: Tulsi vs Hannity
Folks,
Caught a bit of the confrontation between Tulsi Gabbard and Sean Hannity last night. It was like watching CNN. Hannity was literally brow beating her because she wouldn't agree with his hyperbole and demands we do more to help the Ukraines. He couldn't abide her straight talk and assessment of the reality of what is really going on and her correct analysis that Ukraine has no chance to defeat the Russian invaders. Because she wouldn't bow to his claims, it got pretty confrontational.
I'm gonna stop here for a second and say something that may surprise everyone. Tulsi Gabbard is probably the only Democrat I could ever vote for. I perceive her, as I do myself, as an iconoclast and is willing to speak truth to power, no matter what Party they belong to. Not only that, she has also served in the Army Reserve and on active duty; not as a lawyer, but as a combat nurse. She has not only talked the talk, she has walked the walk. Frankly I find her a breath of fresh air. And I agree with her assessment… more aid, more involvement is pissing into the wind… it will not change the inevitable. Putin will take what ever he wants of Ukraine, partially or all. If Zelenskyy cares for his country and people, he should immediately sue for peace and negotiate the best deal he can to stop the carnage.
Neither she or myself are supporters of Putin or the invasion… instead we have a very pragmatic understanding of reality. Ukraine is out numbered, out gunned and just prolonging the inevitable. What we all should be discussing was what was the cause of this debacle and it comes down to this; "Those who ignore history… are condemned to repeat it"!
I'd like to make an analogy… The year was 1962… it was the closest the world ever came to an all out nuclear war. The genesis of the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union was the Soviets installation of nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba, just 90 miles from our coast. Having weapons of mass destruction so close to our borders was unacceptable to our country. So unacceptable that we were willing to risk nuclear war to force their removal. We recognized the inherent risk that the intermediate ranged ballistic missiles presented. They were more accurate than the long range ICBM's and the time from launch to target was fractional. Frankly, we would be vulnerable to a degree that was unacceptable. As a result… we went eyeball to eyeball with Khrushchev and the Soviets… either you remove the missiles or we will do it for you at the risk of all out nuclear war. Thankfully, Khrushchev backed down and the world was spared the ultimate act of human depravity.
Now this should have been a lesson for all time… not time immemorial. If we were willing to risk war over missiles in Cuba… how could we be so ignorant to not understand how much a threat Putin and the Russians perceived a former client state, sitting directly on their national border… becoming a member of NATO? Well, it seems until Biden, Blinken, Zelenskyy and company came along… those in charge hadn't forgotten the lessons of history. You can go so far, but not so far, as to put the world at risk. Through gross incompetence and ignorance… these marplots ignored the lessons of history and stepped over the line and set the stage for the invasion of Ukraine by Putin and the Russians.
The tipping point came during a heralded phone call between Biden, Blinken and Zelenskyy, where the Z-Man appealed to our President and Secretary of State to sponsor Ukraine into becoming a full member of NATO… Biden has been quoted as saying, "It is in your hands Volod"… interpreted by both the Ukraines and Putin as "It's a done deal, we'll support it". That my friends was the proverbial "Bridge too far"! Putin immediately started marshaling his forces on the border of Ukraine. Now if this administration had a lick of common sense… they should have immediately taken a step back and publicly stated, unequivocally, we will not entertain, nor support Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. Instead they sat on their collective asses and let this thing get too far down the road to stop it. A pox on their house!
Of course, considering the damage Biden and company have done to our own nation in just one year… it shouldn't be a surprise how inept they could be on the international stage as well. My God, look at how they handled the retreat from Afghanistan or how they've opened our borders to a foreign invaision.
I guess what I'm appealing to all of you… is before you urge greater involvement on our or Europe's part in this debacle… take the time to think about what the consequences are… and more importantly how a corrupt, stupid politician and his minions… planted the seeds of war through arrogance, ignorance and hubris. Sleepy Joe may be good at graft, extortion and collusion… but he appears to be ignorant of what he said a week ago or the lessons of history from a few decades ago.
BTW… Hannity owes Gabbard an apology… she is the smarter of the two and has called a spade a spade. She's right on in her analysis.
Shadow
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 17
1861 – U.S.S. Powhatan, Lieutenant D. D. Porter, arrived off Pensacola. Under her protecting guns, 600 troops on board steamer Atlantic were landed at Fort Pickens to complete its reinforcement. President Lincoln had stated "I want that fort saved at all hazards." The President's wish was fulfilled, and use of the best harbor on the Gulf was denied the Confederacy for the entire war, while serving the Union in¬dispensably in the blockade and the series of devastating assaults from the sea that divided and de¬stroyed the South.
1897 – The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897 when, according to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) is claimed to have resulted in a fatality from the crash and the alleged alien body is to have been buried in an unmarked grave at the local cemetery.
1943 – Lieutenant Ross P. Bullard and Boatswain's Mate First Class C. S. "Mike" Hall boarded the U-175 at sea after their cutter, the CGC Spencer, blasted the U-boat to the surface with depth charges when the U-boat attempted to attack the convoy the Spencer was escorting. They were part of a boarding party sent to seize the U-boat before the Nazi crew could scuttle it. The damage to the U-boat was severe, however, and it sank after both had boarded it and climbed the conning tower. Both men ended up in the water as it slipped beneath the waves. Nevertheless, they carry the distinction of being the first American servicemen to board an enemy warship underway at sea since the War of 1812. The Navy credited the Spencer with the kill. She rescued 19 of the U-boat's crew and her sister cutter, Duane, rescued 22. One Spencer crewman was killed by friendly fire during the battle.
1945 – U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash commandeers over half a ton of uranium at Strassfut, Germany, in an effort to prevent the Russians from developing an A-bomb. Pash was head of the Alsos Group, organized to search for German scientists in the postwar environment in order to prevent the Russians, previously Allies but now a potential threat, from capturing any scientists and putting them to work at their own atomic research plants. Uranium piles were also rich "catches," as they were necessary to the development of atomic weapons.
1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA financed and trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure. Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. policymakers since he seized power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. Castro's attacks on U.S. companies and interests in Cuba, his inflammatory anti-American rhetoric, and Cuba's movement toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union led U.S. officials to conclude that the Cuban leader was a threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. In March 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train and arm a force of Cuban exiles for an armed attack on Cuba. John F. Kennedy inherited this program when he became president in 1961. Though many of his military advisors indicated that an amphibious assault on Cuba by a group of lightly armed exiles had little chance for success, Kennedy gave the go-ahead for the attack. On April 17, 1961, around 1,200 exiles, armed with American weapons and using American landing craft, waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citizenry, who would rise up and overthrow Castro's government. The plan immediately fell apart–the landing force met with unexpectedly rapid counterattacks from Castro's military, the tiny Cuban air force sank most of the exiles' supply ships, the United States refrained from providing necessary air support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed, and more than 1,100 were captured. The failure at the Bay of Pigs cost the United States dearly. Castro used the attack by the "Yankee imperialists" to solidify his power in Cuba and he requested additional Soviet military aid. Eventually that aid included missiles, and the construction of missile bases in Cuba sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union nearly came to blows over the issue. Further, throughout much of Latin America, the United States was pilloried for its use of armed force in trying to unseat Castro, a man who was considered a hero to many for his stance against U.S. interference and imperialism. Kennedy tried to redeem himself by publicly accepting blame for the attack and its subsequent failure, but the botched mission left the young president looking vulnerable and indecisive.
1970 – With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth. On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed for a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However, two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft. Mission commander Lovell reported to mission control on Earth: "Houston, we've had a problem here," and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water had been disrupted. The landing mission was aborted, and the astronauts and controllers on Earth scrambled to come up with emergency procedures. The crippled spacecraft continued to the moon, circled it, and began a long, cold journey back to Earth. The astronauts and mission control were faced with enormous logistical problems in stabilizing the spacecraft and its air supply, as well as providing enough energy to the damaged fuel cells to allow successful reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Navigation was another problem, and Apollo 13's course was repeatedly corrected with dramatic and untested maneuvers. On April 17, tragedy turned to triumph as the Apollo 13 astronauts touched down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
2003 – US Special Forces captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (5 of clubs), a half brother of Saddam Hussein. He was 3rd the list of 55 former Iraqi officials wanted by the US.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
CRILLEY, FRANK WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Chief Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 13 September 1883, Trenton, N.J. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. (19 November 1928). Citation: For display of extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession above and beyond the call of duty during the diving operations in connection with the sinking in a depth of water 304 feet, of the U.S.S. F-4 with all on board, as a result of loss of depth control, which occurred off Honolulu, T.H., on 25 March 1915. On 17 April 1915, William F. Loughman, chief gunner's mate, U.S. Navy, who had descended to the wreck and had examined one of the wire hawsers attached to it, upon starting his ascent, and when at a depth of 250 feet beneath the surface of the water, had his lifeline and air hose so badly fouled by this hawser that he was unable to free himself; he could neither ascend nor descend. On account of the length of time that Loughman had already been subjected to the great pressure due to the depth of water, and of the uncertainty of the additional time he would have to be subjected to this pressure before he could be brought to the surface, it was imperative that steps be taken at once to clear him. Instantly, realizing the desperate case of his comrade, Crilley volunteered to go to his aid, immediately donned a diving suit and descended. After a lapse of time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, Crilley was brought to the surface, having by a superb exhibition of skill, coolness, endurance and fortitude, untangled the snarl of lines and cleared his imperiled comrade, so that he was brought, still alive, to the surface.
COVINGTON, JESSE WHITFIELD
Rank and organization: Ship's Cook Third Class, U.S. Navy. Place and date: At sea aboard the U.S.S. Stewart, 17 April 1918. Entered service at: California. Born: 16 September 1889, Haywood, Tenn. G.O. No.: 403, 1918. Citation: For extraordinary heroism following internal explosion of the Florence H. The sea in the vicinity of wreckage was covered by a mass of boxes of smokeless powder, which were repeatedly exploding. Jesse W. Covington, of the U.S.S. Stewart, plunged overboard to rescue a survivor who was surrounded by powder boxes and too exhausted to help himself, fully realizing that similar powder boxes in the vicinity were continually exploding and that he was thereby risking his life in saving the life of this man.
UPTON, FRANK MONROE
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 29 April 1896, Loveland, Colo. Accredited to: Colorado. G.O. No.: 403, 1918. Citation: For extraordinary heroism following internal explosion of the Florence H, on 17 April 1918. The sea in the vicinity of wreckage was covered by a mass of boxes of smokeless powder, which were repeatedly exploding. Frank M. Upton, of the U.S.S. Stewart, plunged overboard to rescue a survivor who was surrounded by powder boxes and too exhausted to help himself. Fully realizing the danger from continual explosion of similar powder boxes in the vicinity, he risked his life to save the life of this man.
BURKE, FRANK (also known as FRANCIS X. BURKE)
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 15th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Nuremberg, Germany, 17 April 1945. Entered service at: Jersey City, N.J. Born: 29 September 1918, New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 4, 9 January 1946. Citation: He fought with extreme gallantry in the streets of war-torn Nuremberg, Germany, where the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, was engaged in rooting out fanatical defenders of the citadel of Nazism. As battalion transportation officer he had gone forward to select a motor-pool site, when, in a desire to perform more than his assigned duties and participate in the fight, he advanced beyond the lines of the forward riflemen. Detecting a group of about 10 Germans making preparations for a local counterattack, he rushed back to a nearby American company, secured a light machinegun with ammunition, and daringly opened fire on this superior force, which deployed and returned his fire with machine pistols, rifles, and rocket launchers. From another angle a German machinegun tried to blast him from his emplacement, but 1st Lt. Burke killed this guncrew and drove off the survivors of the unit he had originally attacked. Giving his next attention to enemy infantrymen in ruined buildings, he picked up a rifle dashed more than 100 yards through intense fire and engaged the Germans from behind an abandoned tank. A sniper nearly hit him from a cellar only 20 yards away, but he dispatched this adversary by running directly to the basement window, firing a full clip into it and then plunging through the darkened aperture to complete the job. He withdrew from the fight only long enough to replace his jammed rifle and secure grenades, then re-engaged the Germans. Finding his shots ineffective, he pulled the pins from 2 grenades, and, holding 1 in each hand, rushed the enemy-held building, hurling his missiles just as the enemy threw a potato masher grenade at him. In the triple explosion the Germans were wiped out and 1st Lt. Burke was dazed; but he emerged from the shower of debris that engulfed him, recovered his rifle, and went on to kill 3 more Germans and meet the charge of a machine pistolman, whom he cut down with 3 calmly delivered shots. He then retired toward the American lines and there assisted a platoon in a raging, 30-minute fight against formidable armed hostile forces. This enemy group was repulsed, and the intrepid fighter moved to another friendly group which broke the power of a German unit armed with a 20-mm. gun in a fierce fire fight. In 4 hours of heroic action, 1st Lt. Burke single-handedly killed 11 and wounded 3 enemy soldiers and took a leading role in engagements in which an additional 29 enemy were killed or wounded. His extraordinary bravery and superb fighting skill were an inspiration to his comrades, and his entirely voluntary mission into extremely dangerous territory hastened the fall of Nuremberg, in his battalion's sector.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for April 17, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
17 April
1923: Lt Rutledge Irvine flew a Douglas DT with a Liberty engine to a world altitude record for class C airplanes with a load of 1,000 kilograms by reaching 11,609 feet over McCook Field. (5)
1923: Lt Harold R. Harris set a world speed record of 114.35 MPH for 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) in a DH-4L Liberty 375 at Dayton. He also set a speed record of 114.22 MPH for 2,000 kilometers in this flight. (24)
1943: Eighth Air Force made its first 100-plane attack on a single target at Bremen, Germany. (24)
1951: KOREAN WAR/Operation MiG. An intelligence operation behind enemy lines resulted in the recovery of vital components of a crashed MiG-15. A YH-19 helicopter flew a U.S. and South Korean team to the crash area south of Sinanju, N. Korea. Under friendly fighter cover, the party extracted MiG components and samples and obtained photographs. On the return flight southward the helicopter came under enemy ground fire and received one hit. The successful mission led to greater technical knowledge of the MiG. (28)
1954: The US Army announced that it was delivering the Corporal guided rocket and the Honest John ballistic rocket to troops for ground fighting. (16) (24)
1961: The USAF Cambridge Research Center launched a constant-altitude balloon from Vernalis, Calif. It stayed at 70,000 feet for 9 days with a 40-pound payload. (16) (24)
1962: Maj David W. Crow flew a MATS C-135B to 47,171 feet to set new weight/altitude records for payloads of 33,069, 44092, 55,115, and 66,138 pounds. (24)
1964: Mrs. Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world when she landed her Cessna 180 Spirit of Columbus at Columbus after a 29-day, 11-hour, 59-minute flight. She made 21 stops in flying 23,206 miles and became the first woman to fly across both the Atlantic and Pacific. (9)
1967: The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird set a record for the longest Mach 3 flight in history. The Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) successfully launched a Minuteman II on its first attempt from Vandenberg AFB. (1)(6) At Bien Hoa AB, Vietnam, PACAF's 19 FS (Commando) transferred its F-5s to the Vietnamese Air Force's 522 FS. (17)
1969: After being dropped by a B-52, test pilot Maj Jerauld R. Gentry completed the X-24 Lifting Body's first free-flight over Edwards AFB. (3)
1970: SAC emplaced its first Minuteman III into a 91 SMW silo at Minot AFB. (6) 1988: MACKAY TROPHY. Through 23 July, improved relations between the Soviet Union and the US led to joint verification experiments to monitor nuclear testing. Refueled by KC-10s, C-5s carried test equipment and scientists from the US to Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. To complete the first mission to Semipalatinsk, Capt Michael Eastman and fellow crewmembers (Maj John L. Cirafici, Capt James Runk and Kelly Scott; SMSgt Arthur Vogt; MSgts Robert Downs, Charles Finnegan, James Maurer, and William Tobler; TSgts William Nunn Jr.; SSgt Timothy Hahn; and Sgts Andrew Benucci, Jr. and Thomas Siler) had to overcome a void of information and numerous obstacles. For that effort, they received the Mackay Trophy for 1988. (18)
1989: Lockheed delivered the 50th and last C-5B Galaxy transport to the USAF. (16) Through 18 April, Lockheed test pilots Jerry Hoyt and Ron Williams set 16 time-to-climb and altitude records in a NASA U-2C at the Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards AFB. After the flight, the aircraft retired to a museum. (20)
1996: Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. The operation in Haiti officially came to an end. The US only lost one soldier to hostile fire in the 18-month operation in which US military forces dismantled a military dictatorship. (26) 1998: The USAF accepted the first of two C-38A Courier aircraft. Two ANG pilots from the 201 AS flew the aircraft from St. Louis to Andrews AFB to replace the older C-21. (32) The 20 SOS at Hurlburt Field, Fla., received the Air Force's first production-modified MH-53J Pave Low III helicopter from Lockheed Martin. (AFNEWS Article 980545, 25 April)
1999: Operation ALLIED FORCE. The USAF sent the RQ-1 Predator on its first flights into a combat zone to perform reconnaissance over Serbia. (21)
2000: Through 20 April, a 437 AW C-17 from Charleston AFB airlifted Polish soldiers and equipment from Strachowice AB in southwestern Poland to Mitrovica, Kosovo, to augment NATO peacekeeping forces in the Yugoslav province. In four days, Air Mobility Command moved 130 Polish troops and 205,000 pounds of equipment. A single C-17 Globemaster III, flown by several aircrews, performed the shuttle missions between Ramstein AB, Strachowice, and Mitrovica. (22)
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